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PARADIGMS, PARABLES & PARADOXES
The band is called The Stu Thomas Paradox. Stu is also the
bass player with Dave Graney's Lurid Yellow Mist and Kim
Salmon's Surrealists. What's the biggest lesson Stu's learned
from Dave? "Time is short, be prolific. And use strange
chords liberally, without fear." And from Kim? "Be true
to the embryo of an idea, and treat it as a precious thing."
So what is The Stu Thomas Paradox? "It's me. It's my band,
and any permutation thereof. We play as a one, two, three
or four-piece. You never know which it will be. We play
a load of different styles, under a voodoo-surf umbrella.
A paradox is a walking contradiction. That's me all over.
With reverb."
The Stu Thomas Paradox launch their new album, Escape From
Algebr
a, at the Grace Darling on Saturday, October 16. "It just
came to me like in a waking dream," Stu says of the title.
"I turned to my colleague and just said it. He pissed himself.
That was the right reaction - it was in! As for the meaning,
people should make up their own minds, though did you know
that algebra and music are supposed to be descriptions of
the universe and ultimately God? Maybe that's something
worth escaping from? Maybe it just means lose the formula.
I don't know, it's open to interpretation."
The Stu Thomas Paradox sound has been dubbed "voodoo-surf".
What's been Stu's favourite description? "'You made me feel
like I was in a Tarantino movie, you made me feel cool.'
I liked that one. And I liked, 'Sounds like Bowie.' What
higher praise is there?"
The band features local legend Billy Miller, who found fame
in the '70s with The Ferrets. "Billy is a musical supernova,"
Stu states. "He's really very inclusive. Gives other players
space to shine. I like the way he puts a kind of positivity
across to audiences. That's why they love him. It's always
a positive experience playing or interacting with Bill,
without fail. And he's an encyclopedia of songs."
If you check out Escape From Algebra (available at Pure
Pop and gigs), you'll notice that the songs are in alphabetical
order, starting with Free Of Mind and ending with Woman
Of Steel. "It was part of the 'automatic' approach I applied
to much of this album," Stu explains. "I wanted to avoid
agonising over every little decision. That particular one
was decided for me - by the alphabet. A bit of randomness
is good in music, a bit of freedom … that's why we used
all the first takes and we didn't rehearse before we went
in the studio. I know my band are all great players and
I trusted them to come up with gold. Which they did."
A BAD DECISION - ALL NIGHT LONG
Can you believe that Paul Kelly has never played at the
AFL Grand Final? Howzat! has got nothing against Lionel
Richie - Dancing On The Ceiling and All Night Long - are
fine pop songs. But is he relevant to our great game? Has
he, like Paul Kelly, written a song that actually mentions
the MCG? Lionel might have been relevant if the game was
played at Etihad and he could actually dance on the ceiling.
Or if it was a night Grand Final and he could do All Night
Long and Running With The Night (Howzat!'s friend Pat also
suggested he dedicate Easy to Collingwood's female fans).
The man who books the Grand Final entertainment, Michael
Gudinski, is one of the greatest supporters of Australian
music. No doubt he was under pressure from the AFL to land
a big "international" star. But hopefully the Richie ridiculousness
will be the beginning of the end of the dreaded cultural
cringe. Paul Kelly doing Leaps And Bounds would have been
great. Molly suggested Russell Morris doing The Real Thing,
and Mike Brady even wrote a new song called One Day In October.
All of them would have been better, more relevant and cheaper
than Lionel Richie. What could have been a true celebration
of Australian music (Cold Chisel could have also been flown
in from Deniliquin) was, sadly, a farce.
PIE NIGHT
It was like a nightmare - having to fight through scores
of Collingwood supporters to get to the Grace Darling band
room to see Underminers launch their new album, Heart Part
Of Your Mind. The backdrop to the quieter songs was raucous
renditions of the Pies theme song. Underminers singer Justin
"Hap" Hayward was unperturbed. He told the crowd: "I also
did a CD launch - for The Dead Salesmen's Bluestoned - on
the night of Princess Diana's funeral and the pub refused
to turn off the TV. I went to do a song and a woman said,
'Shut up, you insensitive bastard!'"
CHART WATCH
Short Stack have a Top 5 debut.
Planets SHORT STACK (number four, debut)
Plans BIRDS OF TOKYO (14)
Hello THE POTBELLEEZ (19)
Freefallin' ZOE BADWI (23)
Choose You STAN WALKER (31)
Rock It LITTLE RED (36)
Freak Tonight SCARLETT BELLE (37)
And Then We Dance JUSTICE CREW (39)
Kasey Chambers' new album spends a second week at number
three.
Little Bird KASEY CHAMBERS (number three)
Birds Of Tokyo BIRDS OF TOKYO (seven)
Down The Way ANGUS & JULIA STONE (10)
Running On Air BLISS N ESO (15)
I Believe You Liar WASHINGTON (16)
Midnight Remember LITTLE RED (19)
Rage And Ruin JIMMY BARNES (25)
April Uprising THE JOHN BUTLER TRIO (28)
From The Inside Out STAN WALKER (31)
Preloved BECCY COLE (32, debut)
Grinderman 2 GRINDERMAN (33)
HOWZAT! PLAYLIST
Only Friend THE STU THOMAS PARADOX
Audacious UNDERMINERS
Everything You Need NICK BATTERHAM
Like I Never Was At All JUAN ALBAN
Save! CHARLES JENKINS
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